Wuerth, Mary. (February 2004). The American Biology Teacher. Vol.66. No. 2. 109-113.
The article, "Resources for Teaching Evolution," was written to provide teachers with many avenues to go down when teaching the theory of evolution. The author stated that some teachers fear this topic because they are uncertain about their own knowledge and how to teach it without confusing students with a background in Creationism. Furthermore, some teachers are reluctant to pursue this topic because they don't want to cross any lines that would upset students or their parents. The author's main point for the importance of teaching evolution was to understand the process of "natural selection" especially in dicussing and working with antibiotic resistant pathogens. Several resources were listed from videos, books and websites, for a teacher to use in educating about evolution. Some specific activities were also given such as, creating a timeline, dating fossils, having a panel discussion, or recreating the works of Charles Darwin. All these activities were noted as being found at websites as provided by the author. She concluded by restating that teachers have a resposiblity to teach evolution because it contains the process of natural selection and uses science processes such a gathering data, and providing evidence, which science students will have to do to support their own theories.
My inital reaction when I read the title was, "hey, this might be able to help me teach evolution effectively and without contoversy," but I found it did contain information I might feel hesitant to use in my classroom. The author listed a video as a resource from PBS called "What About God?" which I wouldn't think public schools would allow even the mention of God by a faculty to his/her students, but this video shows real people in their struggle to balance religious reasoning and scientific reasoning. I would think there might be parents to dispute the showing of such a video in fear that it would corrupt how their child views religion ( if the family was religiously based in Creationism). Being a Catholic myself, I think evolution is an important theory to teach in school, but I would never want to jeopardize a person's religious beliefs. I think for the same reasons Mary Wuerth said, such as natural selection and the understanding of the nature of science are reason enough to continue the teaching of evolution, and I think most of the resources she listed would be an excellent help to any science/biology teacher.
~ Beth C
The article, "Resources for Teaching Evolution," was written to provide teachers with many avenues to go down when teaching the theory of evolution. The author stated that some teachers fear this topic because they are uncertain about their own knowledge and how to teach it without confusing students with a background in Creationism. Furthermore, some teachers are reluctant to pursue this topic because they don't want to cross any lines that would upset students or their parents. The author's main point for the importance of teaching evolution was to understand the process of "natural selection" especially in dicussing and working with antibiotic resistant pathogens. Several resources were listed from videos, books and websites, for a teacher to use in educating about evolution. Some specific activities were also given such as, creating a timeline, dating fossils, having a panel discussion, or recreating the works of Charles Darwin. All these activities were noted as being found at websites as provided by the author. She concluded by restating that teachers have a resposiblity to teach evolution because it contains the process of natural selection and uses science processes such a gathering data, and providing evidence, which science students will have to do to support their own theories.
My inital reaction when I read the title was, "hey, this might be able to help me teach evolution effectively and without contoversy," but I found it did contain information I might feel hesitant to use in my classroom. The author listed a video as a resource from PBS called "What About God?" which I wouldn't think public schools would allow even the mention of God by a faculty to his/her students, but this video shows real people in their struggle to balance religious reasoning and scientific reasoning. I would think there might be parents to dispute the showing of such a video in fear that it would corrupt how their child views religion ( if the family was religiously based in Creationism). Being a Catholic myself, I think evolution is an important theory to teach in school, but I would never want to jeopardize a person's religious beliefs. I think for the same reasons Mary Wuerth said, such as natural selection and the understanding of the nature of science are reason enough to continue the teaching of evolution, and I think most of the resources she listed would be an excellent help to any science/biology teacher.
~ Beth C
Link to "Resources for Teaching Evolution":
http://0-www.jstor.org.helin.uri.edu/stable/4451635?seq=1